Everton v Burnley: Team news, predictions, stats & odds

The game kicks off at 1500 BST at Goodison Park.

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Everton v Burnley: Team news

Everton defender Ashley Williams returns from suspension for the visit of Burnley on Saturday.

Midfielder Morgan Schneiderlin suffered no after-effects following his first start in three matches last weekend after an ankle problem so is likely to retain his place.

Ramiro Funes Mori and Yannick Bolasie (both knee), James McCarthy (hamstring), Seamus Coleman (broken leg) and Aaron Lennon are all missing but midfielder Muhamed Besic came through 45 minutes with the under-23s in midweek as he builds up his fitness after a knee operation on the eve of the season.

Burnley welcome back midfielder Steven Defour as they continue to search for a first Premier League away win.

Defour injured his thigh in the win over Stoke earlier this month but is ready to return to the squad.

Johann Berg Gudmundsson (knee) scored twice as he made a comeback for the under-23s in midweek but he could be another week away from match fitness.

Teams

Everton (from): Robles, Holgate, Williams, Jagielka, Baines, Schneiderlin, Gueye, Barkley, Davies, Mirallas, Lukaku, Stekelenburg, Pennington, Kenny, Barry, Calvert-Lewin, Valencia, Lookman. 

Burnley (from):  Heaton, Robinson, Pope, Lowton, Keane, Mee, Long, Ward, Darikwa, Tarkowski, Brady, Barton, Flanagan, Defour, Boyd, Hendrick, Westwood, Arfield, Vokes, Gray, Agyei, Defour, Barnes. 

Everton v Burnley: Manager quotes

Ronald Koeman (Everton)

On Ross Barkley allegedly being punched while on a night out: "It is not what you like to read in the press about your players. I think it could happen to anyone in town and maybe now you realise it is maybe not the best place (to be). It was the wrong time at the wrong place.

"But it is no problem for me if the behaviour (is good). He didn't drink, he was driving his car, and if you meet those (type of) people then something can happen."Maybe that is the reason I live outside the town.

"You learn from incidents that happen and that's good because you need to learn."

On Barkley's future: "I am not involved in negotiations but I know the board is talking to his agent. We offer him what is good, what is normal for the player. We need to know the answer before the end of the season. I spoke to Ross several weeks ago and he mentioned his ambition was the Champions League and I told him I had the same ambition.

"He is one of the key players, a kid of the club and a kid of the town, and in my opinion there is no better place for him to continue than at Everton. Everyone sees a difference between this season and last season: the direction, the new signings, the new stadium." 

On Romelu Lukaku being nominated for the  men's Professional Footballers' Association Player of the Year award: "He is making the difference between Everton and the rest of the teams.

"He is scoring goals and showing he is the most productive striker in the Premier League. There are a lot of good players named for this award but he gets my vote because I see him playing every weekend. I don't see Hazard playing every weekend, even though I know he is one of the best." 

On trying to overtake Arsenal in the table: "It will be difficult but if we finish fifth or six it will be perfect because then you don't play any pre-qualification games for the Europa League. We would like to play in Europe, even if we have to play qualification games in the summer. It does not change the date to start our pre-season, it means we will have some early competitive games.

"I have that experience (of going through the qualifiers) with Southampton. It's not easy but we want to be in Europe and to do that, if we finish seventh in the league, we need to play qualifiers in the last week of July."

Sean Dyche (Burnley)

On Michael Keane being nominated for the Professional Footballers' Association men's Young Player of the Year award: "It's a great sign for him and he deserves to be in that company.

"We're not shining lights of the Premier League or a superpower, so for other players to see that and say 'hang on a minute, he's been terrific in a smaller side at a smaller club' is good, it's good of his peers to recognise that.

"He's in some very good company, some players who are having absolutely fine seasons, and he's having a very strong season too." 

On Keane's future: "He's a pretty steady lad, he's very respectful of the team around him and the staff and how they've tried to help him.

"He's developed well over the last two-and-a-half-seasons and I'm pleased because part of my sales pitch to get him here was that he'd be in a group that would develop and he'd be a big part of that.

"So I'm pleased from our point of view that it rang true for him, but he still deserves a lot of credit, the team is the most important thing but you still need individuals to perform and he's done that." 

On Romelu Lukaku: "I remember at Watford ringing Roberto Di Matteo about him.

"He just laughed and said 'he's a Champions League player'. I said 'okay, he'll not be coming to Watford then'.

"Looking at him as a young lad when he first arrived I thought he looked a handful then. But he's more than that. He can play, he's a physical handful but he's a fine player, no two ways around it." 

Everton v Burnley: Our prediction 

1pt Kevin Mirallas to score anytime in Everton v Burnley at 21/10 – outstanding in his last two games and fancied to get on the scoresheet 

Our David John writes... Ronald Koeman might disagree but the consensus is that Everton were abysmal in the Merseyside derby. However, they have shown some fortitude since then by nearly hanging on to beat Manchester United at Old Trafford and then sweeping aside Leicester in a crazy game last weekend.   

This screams strong home banker once again as they look to make it eight on the spin at Goodison in the Premier League with everything firing on all cylinders at the moment, particularly in the final third of the field as Romelu Lukaku presses home his claims for a whopping new contract or a big-money move elsewhere.    

Lukaku netted another brace against the Foxes but it was Kevin Mirallas who impressed me by producing a man-of-the-match display that got Everton on the front foot. He almost opened the scoring too but got in a bit of a tangle under pressure in the penalty area and Tom Davies stepped in to tidy up.    

Mirallas seems to have really stepped up in the last couple of games having been benched against Liverpool and his price to get on the scoresheet here is tempting.

The visitors have had much better chances than this to finally win away from home lately but goalless draws with Sunderland and Middlesbrough are a step in the right direction in the grand scheme of things and manager Sean Dyche can at least console himself with a pair of clean sheets.  

January signing Robbie Brady was chief culprit at the Riverside last week after he wasted a couple of opportunities following rare forays forward from the Clarets. Form of no goals in four outings will surely not cut any ice in this game with a combination of Andre Gray, Ashley Barnes and Sam Vokes all looking distinctly out of sorts.   

It all points to another heroic effort being required from a Burnley rearguard led by the excellent Michael Keane and Tom Heaton but stemming the tide for 90 minutes and beyond is probably asking too much with Mirallas fancied to be among those to make a telling impact.  

Prediction: Everton 2-0 Burnley 

Everton v Burnley: Opta facts

Everton have won both of their previous Premier League home games against Burnley, keeping a clean sheet each time. 

Burnley won the reverse of this fixture 2-1 thanks to Scott Arfield’s 90th minute strike. They’ve not done the league double over Everton since the 1959/60 campaign, when they won the top-flight. 

The Clarets have had a player sent off in both of their previous Premier League visits to Goodison Park (Stephen Jordan in December 2009 and Ashley Barnes in April 2015).  

Romelu Lukaku (23 goals) currently has more Premier League goals than Middlesbrough overall (22 goals). The last player to score more goals than an entire team in a Premier League season was Luis Suarez (31 goals) in 2013-14; three more than Norwich City (28 goals). 

In 2017, Lukaku (13 goals from 42 shots) has scored more Premier League goals than opponents Burnley (11 goals from 146 shots). 

Romelu Lukaku has scored in all eight of Everton’s competitive matches at Goodison Park in 2017; seven Premier League games and one in the FA Cup. 

Burnley have won just four points in 16 Premier League away matches this season (W0 D4 L12) – the only team in the top four tiers of English football to have won fewer away from home in league competition this season are Rotherham (1). 

Tom Heaton has made the most saves in the Premier League this season (120), while Burnley have allowed their opponents a league-high 573 shots in total. 

Everton have scored 26 goals in seven Premier League games at Goodison Park in 2017 – one more than they netted in 18 Premier League home matches in 2016 (25). 

Ross Barkley is the leading English player in the Premier League for assists (8) and chances created (73) this season. He’s assisted three league goals for Lukaku since the start of February – the same tally he had in the competition for the Belgian before then.     

Everton v Burnley: Sky Bet odds

Everton are considered home bankers at 4/9 with Sky Bet as Burnley go up against odds of 13/2 for the victory, while the draw is priced at 13/2. Ronald Koeman’s men were cut to 7/2 to secure a top-six finish after gaining ground on Arsenal last weekend, while the Clarets are all but dismissed in the relegation betting at 50/1. Odds-on top goalscorer favourite Romelu Lukaku also heads the first goalscorer betting at 5/2, significantly shorter than any of the visitors, with Andre Gray and Ashley Barnes both 9/1 to net first. 

Click for Sky Bet's Everton v Burnley odds! 

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